Facebook Officially Launches Video Ads

A public service announcement to people who use Facebook: Those video ads you’ve heard about for the past year have finally launched.

In a post on the business section of its site on Thursday, Facebook said it introduced video ads for a small group of advertisers. The ads, which have been in testing since December and have been on the minds of advertisers going back for months, autoplay within news feeds as someone scrolls past, and the sound is muted unless the person engages with the ad. Facebook said the ad effectiveness will be measured by Nielsen.

Facebook tried to assuage everyday users’ concerns. “We’ll roll out Premium Video Ads slowly and monitor how people interact with them. This limited introduction allows us to concentrate our efforts on a smaller number of advertisers with high-quality campaigns,” Facebook said. While the product launched Thursday, the ads will roll out over the next few months, the company said.

In a November survey of 735 Facebook users by global marketing consultancy Analytic Partners, 83% of users said they would find video ads “intrusive” and would likely “ignore” them.

Marketers are more enthusiastic. “Video is really powerful,” said Shelby Saville, managing director at Spark, a media-buying unit of Publicis Groupe. “Using sight, sound and motion is a way to get consumers to have an emotional connection to the brand, if it’s well done,” she added.

Readers: When you see an ad in your feed, tell us what you think in the comments.